Features

City Manager Weldon Rucker will swear in Roy Meisner as Berkeley’s new chief of police this afternoon on the steps of the Ronald Tsukamoto Public Safety Building at 2 p.m.

Meisner, a 30-year veteran of the Berkeley Police Department, has been acting chief since July when Chief Dash Butler retired.

City Council approved Meisner as the new chief last month after the city manager conducted a nationwide search for potential candidates.

Meisner, 53, inherits a young police department that will face a tough budget over the next two years.

“The department will have to maintain services with fewer resources,” Rucker said when he announced Meisner as the new chief. “The new chief will have to operate differently but still maintain the high level of sensitivity that’s required to be a police officer in this community. It’s a big challenge.”

—John Geluardi

Toxic chemical on campus

The state has granted the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory an emergency permit to treat a toxic chemical container that is at risk of creating “a small explosion” in the Calvin Building on campus.

The emergency permit, approved by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) , allows the laboratory to treat about one liter of liquid diethyl ether, in the parking lot adjacent to the Calvin Building, which is located near Piedmont Avenue in the busy eastern quadrant of the campus.

According to the DTSC public notice, the chemical, which can become volatile after being stored for long periods of time, is being treated on campus because the laboratory’s hazardous waste disposal contractor worried about handling the container.

“Shock resulting from the transportation of the unstable diethyl ether can result in a small explosion and can pose an imminent danger to human health and the environment,” the notice reads.

Lab officials said they don’t know for sure if the container is in danger of exploding but are not taking any chances.

“We’re not sure,” said BNL Waste Management Group Leader Nancy Rothermich. The container “is very old, so we’re being very conservative and doing a remote opening.”

The container will be moved to the parking lot and opened by a remote control device. The chemical then will be treated by adding ethanol and water, which will reduce its volatility.

Rothermich said the treatment likely will take place during the early morning some time this week or next.

—John Geluardi

Small victory for neighbors in cell phone antennae dispute

A group of North Berkeley neighbors, worried that three proposed cell phone antennae will emit harmful radiation, won a small victory at City Council last Tuesday night.

The council — rejecting City Manager Weldon Rucker’s advice — declined to sign off on Sprint PCS plans to erect antennae on the roof of a Starbucks cafe at the corner of Shattuck and Cedar streets. Instead, the council will hold a public hearing on the matter June 17 and vote on the project within 30 days of the hearing.

Dr. Christopher Portier, director of the environmental toxicology program for the federal government’s National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said there has been limited research on the risk posed to cell phone users and next to nothing on the danger faced by those who simply live near an antenna.

The research on cell phone users has found no evidence of a cancer link, but Portier warned that cell phones have not been around long enough to allow for a definitive study.

“Nobody’s really studied it adequately,” he said.

While health concerns dominate the local debate over the Sprint plans, the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 forbids municipalities from making a decision based on health concerns, according to City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque.

The neighbors contend the city is reading the law too broadly, arguing that health concerns can be considered. But City Councilmember Kriss Worthington warned activists that they need to come up with alternate arguments if they are going to win over the council in June.

Neighbors have raised other objections. They argued, for example, that the antennae would impede views and that they are unnecessary. Cell phone service in the area, they maintained, is already at satisfactory levels.

But Sprint officials and the City Manager’s office noted there are no other antennae in the area and argue that the proposal meets local requirements on appearance.

The Zoning Adjustments Board approved the Sprint plan by a 7-2 vote in December, after the company cut its proposal from six to three antennae and made some aesthetic adjustments to conform with the city’s concerns.

The neighbors appealed the board’s decision and bombarded City Council with e-mail and letters in advance of Tuesday night’s vote.

By David Scharfenberg

querque.

The neighbors contend the city is reading the law too broadly, arguing that health concerns can be considered.

But City Councilmember Kriss Worthington warned activists that they need to come up with alternate arguments if they are going to win over the council in June.

Neighbors have raised other objections. They argued, for example, that the antennae would impede views and that they are unnecessary. Cell phone service in the area, they maintained, is already at satisfactory levels.

But Sprint officials and the City Manager’s office noted there are no other antennae in the area and argue that the proposal meets local requirements on appearance.

The Zoning Adjustments Board approved the Sprint plan by a 7-2 vote in December, after the company cut its proposal from six to three antennae and made some aesthetic adjustments to conform with the city’s concerns.

The neighbors appealed the board’s decision and bombarded City Council with e-mail and letters in advance of Tuesday night’s vote.